Keyword: beltway

John Boehner epitomizes all that is wrong with the Republican Establishment. Boehner has thwarted every plan to overturn or ameliorate the most heinous aspects of Obama's neo-tyrannical rule. These days, I like to call Boehner Crying Cheeto. That is because he is an odd orange- or yellow-color, and cries at the drop of a hat. Boehner started, seemingly, on the right track. He was helpful in engineering the Contract with America in 1994, which helped propel Newt Gingrich to the position of the Chairman of the House. He quickly turned, however, and was involved in an unsuccessful attempt to unseat...

On the heels of Texas Republican Louie Gohmert’s announcement Sunday that he’s officially a candidate for Speaker of the House, conservative activists have launched a website aimed at getting present Speaker John Boehner voted out. The FreedomWorks website explains its position under the title “Speaker Boehner Has Got to Go”: It’s time for a new Speaker of the House. John Boehner has been Speaker of the House for four years. And in those four years he has betrayed conservatives and cut backroom deals to give President Obama exactly what he wants. We can’t accept a Speaker of the House who...

For several weeks now, the mainstream Jurassic media has been up to their old psychological warfare tricks, and naturally, the Republican establishment is falling for it hard. They always do, and this includes “the architect,” Karl Rove. This time it’s the media’s attempt to get Jeb Bush the Republican nomination for President in 2016. Articles that fawn over Jeb, either from a formidability standpoint or in the vein that he’s a “reasonable” conservative are everywhere. There has also been a release of meaningless polls touting Jeb’s strength atop the potential Republican field. These have all surfaced from many of the...

It is truly amazing is how hostile the leadership of the Republican Party is to the people who actually make up the Republican Party. I can tell you first hand that the establishment GOP types dislike the libertarian/conservative coalition aka The Tea Party at least as much as the Democrats do. Probably more. Why? Because the libertarian/conservative coalition is a real threat to their power. Do you honestly think that the GOP as it is currently constituted wants to reduce the size of government? Not a chance. A d this is why the party has been moving since 2012 to...

Speaking to the National Rifle Association’s recent annual conference, NRA executive vice president and CEO Wayne LaPierre, in describing America, said, “Almost everywhere you look, something has gone wrong. You feel it in your heart, you know it in your gut. Something has gone wrong. The core values we believe in, the things we care about most, are changing. Eroding. Our right to speak. Our right to gather. Our right to privacy. The freedom to work, and practice our religion, and raise and protect our families the way we see fit.” He went on to say this: "There are terrorists...

The attacks have begun. The Republican establishment in the U.S.A. has now actually started the shooting war in the 2014 primary elections they have been threatening against conservative candidates for Congress. “Hopefully we’ll go into eight to 10 races and beat the snot out of them,” said former Rep. Steve LaTourette of Ohio. His new political group, Defending Main Street, plans to raise $8 million to defeat tea-party candidates and elect moderate Republicans instead. “We’re going to be very aggressive and we’re going to get in their faces.” LaTourette was a close ally of moderate Republican Speaker John Boehner in...

It behooves all Americans to stand up for what they believe in, and this intestinal fortitude is expected from our elected officials. Alas though, many of those lack any backbone at all and are quite happy to "go along to get along." Normally, we pick some clinically insane progressive liberal to be our Jerk of the Week, but to be fair, we should pick out all those, no matter where they claim to lie on the political spectrum, who are willing to let our rights and liberties be eroded over time. Our choice for Jerk of the Week honors is...

Driven on the Intercounty Connector lately? No? You’re not alone. Many haven’t. The 18.8-mile highway—the first stretch of which opened two and a half years ago after great hype and amid great controversy—is the road less traveled. Traffic counts are well below early projections, and revenue from tolls—needed to pay off the bonds that were sold to build the road—is far less than originally anticipated. The initial estimated cost of $1 billion has ballooned to $2.4 billion—or as much as $4 billion if you include interest payments. Consequently, all tolls on Maryland highways, bridges and tunnels have been raised in...

This book purports to explain how Washington really works. In a sense it does â€“ though only by omission.The book is a chronicle of the most noticeable people in DC â€“ the most â€śimportantâ€ť politicians, lobbyists, reporters, consultants, etc. From this viewpoint, you get great insight into what these people are doing. Unfortunately, you therefore get absolutely no insight into anything else.For example, 10% of the book is devoted to Tim Russertâ€™s funeral. This sort of event is extremely important to these people. A few pages are devoted to David Axelrod shaving his mustache. Also an incredibly important event, apparently....

Sarah Palin reared her head in American airspace this weekend. As the country’s media, entertainment and political elite gathered in Washington, D.C., for the annual roast that is the White House Correspondents Dinner, Palin could not resist lobbing darts from afar. “Yuk it up media and pols,” she tweeted. “While America is buried in taxes and a fight for our rights, the permanent political class in DC dresses up and has a prom to make fun of themselves. No need for that, we get the real joke.” She panned the event again in a second tweet: “That #WHCD was pathetic....

WASHINGTON - Interstate 270 is considered one of the most choked roads in the Washington region, but solutions for the gridlock are few and far between. Figures from the Maryland Department of Transportation show about 114,000 cars use I-270 daily, and that number is expected to jump to 200,000 in the next 10 to 15 years. "Everyone who is familiar with 270 knows it is jammed up in the morning rush hour and evening rush hour," says Gus Bauman, who studies transportation and funding and who chaired a Maryland Blue Ribbon Commission on Transportation Funding. One proposal to ease congestion...

nspired by concerns of unemployment, the economy, Benghazi, and matters of foreign policy; organizers are promoting a “Massive Anti-Obama Rally @ Obama’s Inauguration Day.” Their goal? 500,000+ protesters armed with signs identifying the reason for their participation in the rally. The invitation expresses the following: “If you are unsatisfied with President Barack Obama’s reelection win and you further feel that he will ultimately destabilize America completely, then let us join together with bold Anti-Obama signs clearly stating our main grievances…

We've been right about the academia elites, the Jurassic media, the elitistconservative pundits, the establishment, the "obama foam" class, and Occupy and union thugs, too. This includes anybody who makes his living from government -- and the reporting thereof.

State transportation officials should study dedicated travel lanes for vans, carpools and buses on a congested seven-mile stretch of the Capital Beltway that includes the American Legion Bridge, Montgomery and Fairfax leaders urged Tuesday. HOT lanes for toll payers and high-occupancy vehicles are planned for the Beltway in Virginia from the Springfield Interchange to just north of the Dulles Toll Road, and set to open later this year. But Montgomery County Council President Roger Berliner and Fairfax Board of Supervisors Chair Sharon Bulova pointed out a seven-mile gap in dedicated high-occupancy travel lanes between the northern terminus of the planned...

Representative Mike Kelly, speaking on the House floor today, managed something very rare in the history of the institution – he got a standing ovation. Applause is usually forbidden in the house, but Kelly‘s blistering attack on regulatory red tape and Washington’s culture of control was apparently so powerful that several of his fellow house members couldn’t resist showing their support, clapping, standing up and shouting “USA! USA! USA!” Would you applaud this way? See Kelly’s speech below and decide for yourself:

.S. Attorney General Eric Holder and Lanny Breuer, head of the Justice Department's criminal division, were partners for years at a Washington law firm that represented a Who's Who of big banks and other companies at the center of alleged foreclosure fraud, a Reuters inquiry shows. The firm, Covington & Burling, is one of Washington's biggest white shoe law firms. Law professors and other federal ethics experts said that federal conflict of interest rules required Holder and Breuer to recuse themselves from any Justice Department decisions relating to law firm clients they personally had done work for.

DES MOINES, Iowa — Newt Gingrich has taken heat on the campaign trail from conservatives for filming a 2008 commercial on climate change with House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi. But that was hardly the first time the Republican presidential candidate and former House speaker collaborated with Pelosi. Gingrich co-sponsored 418 bills in Congress with Pelosi during the 12 years they served together in the House, according to the Library of Congress’s THOMAS database. Gingrich was in Congress from 1979 to 1999. Pelosi has served since 1987. As a matter of comparison, House Speaker John Boehner, who has served in Congress...

Newt Gingrich is winning over Republicans. Over the past few months, the former House speaker has charmed primary voters one debate at a time. The once underdog — dismissed as a has-been when he first announced his run and the laughingstock of the race after he accumulated $1 million in debt this summer and was abandoned by almost his entire political team — has compellingly mixed historical insight, warmth toward his fellow GOP candidates, and rancor toward the media into a formula that has propelled him to the top of the polls. But is Gingrich the savior the GOP has...

People have been asking me all week if conservatives will stick with Herman Cain, but I think he's got a bigger problem than the conservative vote. A lot more women than conservatives vote, and the women I've talked to are finished with him. There's a new CBS poll which says that 38 percent of female Republican primary voters are "less likely to back him" now that more accusers have come forward. Among all registered voters, CBS reports that Cain has lost support among women since last month—from 28 percent in October to 15 percent now. My sense is that 15...

Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney continues to hold the pole position for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination in the latest National Journal Political Insiders Poll. But the surprise runner-up to Romney was the two-term Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels, who moved up from fifth place when the last ranking of the potential GOP White House contenders was conducted a year ago. Romney's assets and liabilities are well known and haven't changed much since last January. He has a national network of political and financial supporters left over from his unsuccessful run for the 2008 Republican nomination, a command of economic issues...

I recently asked two liberal friends "Who killed Chandra Levy?" I was referring, of course, to the 24-year-old congressional intern who went missing in DC in the summer of 2001 after a morning jog. (A dog-walker discovered her remains over a year later.)

Washington’s biggest lobbying firm has acquired the Breaux-Lott Leadership Group, a smaller firm started by two former senators in 2008. Patton Boggs, which reported $78.1 million in lobbying revenue in 2009, counts among its clients Halliburton, Bristol Myers Squib and the Mars candy company. Breaux-Lott, started by former Louisiana Senator John Breaux and former Senate Majority Trent Lott and their sons, represented Chevron, Diageo and Goldman Sachs. “I think they’re at a point where they need to continue to grow,” Managing Partner Stuart Pape told POLITICO. “They need the substantial additional resources that we can provide, and that’s why the...

Given the conventional wisdom that “elitist” derision towards her only makes her supporters support her more adamantly, you’d think savvy Beltway consultants who don’t like her would keep that fact to themselves. And yet. Here’s their answer to the question, “Which voice in your party would you most like to mute?” That’s among “political” insiders, i.e. consultants. Among senators and congressmen polled, she finished second behind “no one,” tied with Michele Bachmann and Glenn Beck, among others. These insiders are the same people, mind you, who earlier this year voted her seventh among Republican governors with the brightest political future...

Even as federal employees' salaries are growing robustly, the president's pay czar Kenneth Feinberg has imposed new limits on executive compensation at AIG, Citigroup, General Motors, and GMAC, all recipients of government bailouts. Salaries will be limited to $500,000 in cash, and bonuses will be tied to "real achievement of objective goals." Chris Edwards at CATO—who has done quite a lot of independent analysis of federal pay—puts this story in context and adds some juicy details from his own data. Most remarkably, there are fully 383,000 federal workers earning six-figure salaries and 22,000 earning salaries of over $170,000. And these...

To be relevant in politics, you need either formal power or a lot of people willing to follow your lead. The governing Republicans in the nation's capital have lost both on their continuing path to irrelevance. The disconnect between D.C. Republicans and Republicans throughout the country has been growing for nearly 20 years, but it became more intense and noticeable during the waning years of the Bush administration. Perhaps the final straw was the $700 billion bank bailout plan pushed through Congress last fall despite strong voter opposition. For all the furor unleashed this spring by congressional Republicans about President...

On another, sports oriented board (that has a sub-board for non-sports issues) there was a thread about the pres. election, and someone on that thread commented how in 2000, McCain was lauded as a "Washington maverick" (and I've never understood that label re anyone, either) but in 2008 he was derided as a "Washington insider", opening the door for Obumma. I post there sometimes (using my FR handle) and asked on that thread why "DC insider" is such a bad label. I'm still waiting for a response there. Maybe FReepers can explain, huh, pleeze?ff

The 2008 Republican presidential candidates have been told from the outset why they will fail in a quest for the presidency. Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani’s positions on gun control and his personal history were supposed to disqualify him for Southern, evangelical Republican voters. Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney would suffer a similar fate because of his religion and his evolving views on gay rights and abortion. When former Sen. Fred Thompson (Tenn.) formally entered the race earlier this month, a series of gaffes on the Southern campaign trail hinted that he might not be the savior of...

The so-called "Beltway Madam" pleaded not guilty to federal racketeering and money laundering charges in federal court Friday. Prosecutors say Deborah Jean Palfrey, 50, ran a call-girl service in the Washington, D.C. area for 13 years, taking appointments from her California home and dispatching women to luxury hotels in Washington and Baltimore. They say the service promoted prostitution. [Snip] Palfrey, who was indicted last week, is threatening to release her little black book of 10,000 clients on the Internet to pay for her defense. She writes on her Web site that "consideration is being given to selling the entire 46...

So many stories and reports talk about the politics and mystique inside the beltway of Washington, D.C. For the majority of our population, it is unknown what is meant. As a Marine officer, I spent some time in that environment and I think that I can help explain it. There is no mystique; it is liberalism at the extreme. I recall a former Marine officer who had spent four years in the Corps and risen to the rank of First Lieutenant, and a few years later was elected to Congress. He attended a reception at the commandant of the Marine...

SCARY MOVIE 5, JUST IN TIME FOR FALL! When I was a kid I loved watching those cheesy horror movies like Friday the 13th or Halloween. My friends and I would sit around and invent ludicrous story lines for the mother of all horror films. Well, I have an idea for a film that could roll out in the fall of 2006. Here's the plot--Imagine a Congress that: (1) seriously considers impeaching the President; (2) launches countless investigations into the "bungled" war on terror; (3) votes against any judicial nominee who believes in originalism; (4) raises the estate tax; (5)...

The economic case against minimum wage laws is simple. Employers pay a wage no higher than the value of an additional hour's work. Raising minimum wages forces employers to dismiss low productivity workers. This policy has the largest affect on those with the least education, job experience, and maturity. Consequently, we should expect minimum wage laws to affect teenagers and those with less education. Eliminating minimum wage laws would reduce unemployment and improve the efficiency of markets for low productivity labor.

These are not easy times in which to be a Republican; it’s impossible not to be disheartened by a lot of what’s coming out of Washington. Just this week, Republicans in the House of Representatives failed to vote on a budget because Jerry Lewis and other Republicans on the Appropriations Committee objected to measures that would have controlled spending. All but 18 House Republicans voted against the First Amendment and in support of a bill to regulate 527’s (themselves a creature of the free speech-unfriendly McCain-Feingold campaign finance law). Republicans in the Senate were unable to vote on an immigration...

Into elective office, is talk radio really an effective stepping stone? With a number of others diving head-first into Congressional campaigns this year, probable 2008 Minnesota US Senate candidate Al Franken apparently isn't the only one with ties to the medium. In addition, several have at least indirect connections with liberal radio network Air America. And at the center of their fledgling 2006 candidacies, some are fighting off talk radio-related controversies. While relatively little attention has so far been paid to these hopefuls, that should change as political silly season shortly kicks off. A scorecard: ........................snip................

Lobbyists had a banner 2005, the year before simmering controversies involving Jack Abramoff and former Rep. Randy “Duke” Cunningham (R-Calif.) boiled over outside the Beltway and brought new pressures on Capitol Hill to keep lobbyists at arm’s length. Early returns on end-of-year revenues show strong growth all along Washington’s lobbying corridor. Several well-known firms reported a revenue jump greater than 20 percent, including Barbour Griffith & Rogers, Quinn Gillespie & Associates, the Federalist Group and the Livingston Group, as a series of policy and legislative efforts brought new business to K Street, from Social Security reform to a national energy...

If you thought the point of a major daily paper was to report news, not make headlines, then recent events at the Washington Post may seem a bit odd. First, the strange new fascination with adding reporters to the airwaves continues, where "Washington Post Radio", covered here previously, apparently finds some newsroom staffers with stars in their eyes. Especially brilliant points from Dave Hughes at DCRTV: Posties Prepare To Be Radio Stars - 1/21 - DCRTV hears that a number of Washington Posties are running around the newspaper's downtown DC HQ preparing themselves for their new radio careers ....................snip..................

One bullet away By Salena Zito TRIBUNE-REVIEW We Americans stopped raising warriors and started raising young people who have more baggage than Paris Hilton at a Louis Vuitton sale. Even our cowboys now are marginalized in movies about forbidden love...As for those who think our young people should not join the military, think again: The all-volunteer, professional U.S. military does not serve one policy or one president. The military doesn't make policy, or even comment on policy. It executes policy. Our troops take an oath to the Constitution, not to an administration. This country needs its best and brightest in...

Thanks to a help-wanted ad placed today, we're getting a slightly better sense of how "Washington Post Radio" will sound once on the air. Sure enough, they do realize they'll need qualified broadcasters to get through each day. What in the world, however, are they going to talk about? Will it simply come down to rehashing the headlines every ten minutes? And since they've indicated it's an attempt to steal away liberal NPR listeners, how will this format accomplish that goal? ................snip...........................

Try placing a year on this scenario: a crusty, old-line newspaper teams up with an equally risk-averse broadcasting outfit, to provide a full time outlet for reporters to discuss their stories on the AM radio dial. What era do you think we'd be talking about here, the fifties? At best, the sixties? How about 2006! Yes, the Washington Post, notorious print media fossil, has teamed up with Bonneville Broadcasting to provide "Washington Post Radio" on 1500 AM, until now home to WTOP-AM news radio. Secondarily, its programming will also be heard on 107.7 FM, with its very limited signal reach.....................

Emily J. Miller, former Communications Director for Tom Delay -- Scanlon ditched her to marry another woman; she then talked to the FBI Michael Scanlon found himself at the center of one of the biggest political scandals in Washington history as a result of cheating and lying—but not the type involving the numerous clients he was paid to lobby Congress for, former coworkers and friends of his ex-fiancee say. Scanlon was implicated in the Abramoff scandal by his former thirtysomething fiancee, Emily J. Miller, whom he met in the late 1990s while working as communications director for former House Majority...

Democrats are struggling to reconcile the differences between party leaders in D.C. and independent activists on the Net If I am hearing Simon Rosenberg right (and he is worth listening to), a nasty civil war is brewing within the Democratic Party, and Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton—the party’s presumptive 2008 nominee—needs to avoid getting caught in the middle of it. “It’s not a fight between liberals and conservatives,” Rosenberg told me the other day. “It’s between our ‘governing class’ here and activists everywhere else.” In other words, it’s the Beltway versus the Blogosphere. What’s interesting is that Rosenberg is himself a...

Sept. 14, 2005 - If I am hearing Simon Rosenberg right (and he is worth listening to), a nasty civil war is brewing within the Democratic Party, and Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton—the party’s presumptive 2008 nominee—needs to avoid getting caught in the middle of it. “It’s not a fight between liberals and conservatives,” Rosenberg told me the other day. “It’s between our ‘governing class’ here and activists everywhere else.” In other words, it’s the Beltway versus the Blogosphere. What’s interesting is that Rosenberg is himself a Beltway creature, a preternaturally self-assured young insider with a cherubic face and a cold...

FAIRFAX, Va. -- The mother who allegedly abandoned her toddler on the Capital Beltway then hit him with the car as he tried to get back in was ordered held without bond Friday. Channoah Alece Green, 22, of Newport News, will stand trial Aug. 26 on felony child endangerment charges. Authorities said that on Tuesday night, Green got angry with her 4-year-old son and left him on the side of the highway near the Lee Highway overpass in Falls Church. She was arrested hours later in Hanover County, about 90 miles south, following a traffic accident there, Virginia State Police...

A Newport News woman, who police said abandoned her 4-year-old son on the shoulder of the Capital Beltway and then bumped him with her car as she drove off Tuesday night, was charged with felony child neglect and hit and run, Virginia State Police said. Channoah Alece Green, 22, was arrested later that night about 90 miles away after she was involved in a two-car crash on Interstate 95 in Hanover County just north of Richmond, said Corinne Geller, a state police spokeswoman. Green, who was charged with reckless driving in that incident, is scheduled to appear in Fairfax County...

How's the spring talk radio ratings picture shaping up? Quite clearly: some properly-managed conservative stations are holding up well, while others are greatly suffering, with agonizing mistakes going uncorrected. Liberal talk still isn't taking off, even if there are faint signs of life, giving leftists false hope for the format's future. Not exactly a work of art, is it?

From here in heartland America, I'm winging a message eastward. It's addressed to my brothers and sisters of the mass media as they scrunch up their brows and artfully work their jaws, seeking to understand and explain what Karl Rove knew about Valerie Plame and when he knew it, assuming he knew much of anything, and whom he told, if he told anybody, and who heard, and who else knew it and why. And my message? A terse one: Just shut up, wouldja? Unfortunately, I already know the answer to such an excellent and timely question. The answer is a...

If you're a welfare recipient just getting up, and you may have missed the first hour of the program, once again, we're talking about the judicial nomination harangue going on in the Senate. Roll Call magazine is suggesting that Trent Lott, Republican, Ben Nelson, Democrat, are approaching six senators from each of their respective parties with a deal and the upshot of the deal is that the Democrats would get what they want. They get to cream three of the seven current nominees, the other four would be given floor votes and future nominees would not be filibustered unless a...